1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an alignment film for a liquid crystal (LC) lens, a mold for preparing the same, a method of manufacturing the alignment film for the LC lens, and a method of manufacturing the mold.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Liquid crystal (LC) lenses may be used in various fields, for example, in three-dimensional (3D) display apparatuses. As liquid crystal technologies have been constantly developed, liquid crystal materials are widely used in a variety of applications in diverse fields.
For example, traditional optical zoom lens groups can achieve the zooming effect only when at least two lenses are coupled to each other and are moved. In an actual application procedure, these optical zoom lens groups are relatively thick and heavy and have large volumes such that it is very inconvenient for a user to use them.
LC lenses are an optical assembly in which light beams are focused or emitted using birefringence characteristics of liquid crystal (LC) molecules and a characteristic arranged according to a change in distributions of electric fields. The LC lenses vary an operating voltage to change an arrangement direction of the LC molecules, thereby realizing the effect of adjusting a focal length. In addition, when LC lenses that are fixedly aligned in a particular direction and liquid crystal cells using an additional voltage driving method are combined with each other, it is easy to implement a display apparatus that may perform two-dimensional (2D)-3D switching in one display depending on whether the liquid crystal cells are driven or not. Characteristics of LC lenses that are light-weight and thin are a big advantage and may allow the LC lenses to effectively achieve the optical zooming effect in a small space.